COLUMBUS, Ind. — The first Third House session of 2021 will be Monday, in a virtual format.
It’s free, but registration is requested. By the end of last week, 95 people had registered for Monday’s 8 a.m. event. That’s more than the average 55 attendees who have shown up in person for these sessions during recent years.
The one-hour-long Third House sessions are held once a month until the Legislature adjourns in April.
During this first Third House session, only two state lawmakers from Columbus, Republicans Rep. Ryan Lauer and Sen. Greg Walker, have confirmed they will participate. Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford and Rep. Sean Eberhardt, R-Shelbyville, all have standing invitations to take part if their schedules permit.
At the statehouse, lawmakers are only required to achieve two tasks this year — create a biennial budget and redraw legislative maps. Map boundaries for the next 10 years will remain under GOP control since Republicans maintained their super majority in the General Assembly following last year’s election and census.
More than 1,000 bills have been introduced in just a few weeks.
After Monday, the remaining Third Houses sessions will continue to be presented in a virtual format at 8 a.m. on the following dates: Feb. 22, March 22 and April 5.
Those wishing to participate through the Zoom video conferencing platform should first go to the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s website at columbusareachamber.com.
On the home page, look for the Featured Programs menu.
Under Feature Programs, click onto the link titled Virtual Events. That link will take you to the events calendar.
On the events calendar, look for the date of the next forum. Posted on that date is a link titled Third House Session on Zoom.
Those who click on that final link will be taken to a page where they may pre-register. Each will be sent the information necessary to join the Zoom video conference.
Information: 812-379-4457.
For more on this story, see Sunday’s Republic.
